http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Mistadobalina/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Mistadobalina en-us Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:57:22 UTC Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:57:22 UTC hellipinvite you all to the best Birthday party everhelliperm in Yilong in the Sichuan province home to the recent Earthquake and great spicy food of China because all things being equal I will be here to celebrate my 26th year of life and no death. It should be a cracker so Irsquod be most pleased if everyone can make ithellipI realise itrsquos a little short notice but I really did http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-342871.html hellipI reached into my backpack and found a marmot eating all my carrots so to calm my nerves I sipped a red bull and played tictactoe while listening to Mongolian radiohellipI awoke half blinded by the brilliant blue sky from this nightmare of sorts to find I was in the middle of a Gobi desert steppe surrounded by mountains that had mouths I wrestled out of my sleeping bag to consider http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Mongolia/Gobi-Desert/blog-332190.html My arrival in Mongolia was marred by the realisation that I had no idea what I was to do here for my 30day visa here is a tale of what I didhellipI feel it is a little unconcise unconnected and so on due to writing it in different points of time and space but Irsquom done with it now and so time to bite a bullet and upload as it ishellipSo from Ulan Ude Russia I made a border adv http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-331773.html As in the previous post Irsquom writing not in the place I am writing about Irsquom now in Ulan Ude see map and so most of this is my journal editedhelliptripped out a little in this space and time so please expect stories that have been markedly marked with crayonshellipThursday 070808So as you can see from the previous pic Note Irsquom talking to myself here and about the Lake B http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Russia/Siberia/Lake-Baikal/blog-321845.html So yes this a rewrite as my first seemed a little too disconnected with the source as I wrote it after the happening of the journey so I will in fact now rewrite my journal entries instead to try and give you all the effect I desire of this journey on me. Note it is in present because it was written in the present but of course it all happened in the past I think260708 SaturdayThe facts http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-311623.html So I made it here after two and a half months of travelling around with this goal in mind it was nice to get over the border with no real hiccups. First stop was St Petersburg and an air bed ldquocouchrdquo with a Russian named Ivan lsquothe add as you wishrsquo. Blurry eyed from the night bus I made out this somewhat atypical Russian a kind of longhaired grungy type of style to hi http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-304760.html Firstly then letrsquos go back to me sitting in the industrial heart of Holland waiting for a hitch the then so if yoursquove looked at the travel map yoursquoll know I got to Berlin safely nice Afghani chap took me at high speed on the German highway and then onwards I ventured to experience many things brightly lit by the souls of things dimly lit by the hum drum of money and the da http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/blog-300624.html